Sliding-door mechanism.



T. M. BEARDON.

SUDING DOOR MECHANISM.

ARPLICATIONHLED JULYH, 1914.

Patelited July 25, 1916.

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run STATES, PATENT THOMAS M. BEARDON, OF GODLEY, TEXAS, ASSIGNOR OFONE-HALF TO FRANK GIBBS,

0F GODLEY, TEXAS.

SLIDING-DOOR MECHANISM.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed July 11, 1914. Serial No. 850,334.

To all whom it .Illdf/COILCGTH Be it known that I, THOMAS BEARDON, acitizen of the United States, residing at Godley, in the county ofJohnson and State of Texas, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Sliding-Door Mechanisms, of which the following is aspecification.

My invention relates to a new and useful sliding door mechanism, and itsobject is to provide a pedally operated mechanism whereby a sliding doormay be thrown open and again closed without necessitating the use ofones hand, a single slight movement of the foot serving to actuate boththe opening and closing of the door.

A further object is to provide a device of the character described thatwill be strong, durable, simple and efficient and comparatively easy toconstruct and also one that will not be likely to get out of workingorder.

With these and various other objects in view, my invention has relationto certain novel features of the construction and.use, an example ofwhich is described in the following specification and is illustrated inthe accompanying drawing, wherein:

Figure l is a view showing in side elevation a sliding door equippedwith my novel actuating mechanism, the door being shown in its closedposition. Fig. 2 is a horizontal section taken on aa of Fig. 1. Fig. 3is a vertical section taken on b b of Fig. 1. Fig. l is a detailvertical section taken on c-0 of Fig. 1 showing how the door at itsupper edge is guided by rollers engaging a track. F ig. 5 is a sectionon (Z(Z of Fig. 1 showing the rollers which guide the lower edge of thedoor along a track. Fig. 6 is a detail sectional fragmentary view of thelatch mechanism of my door.

leferring now more particularly to the drawing, wherein like referencecharacters designate similar parts in all the figures, the numeral 1denotes a sliding door fitting when in its closed position in a doorwayformed by a front jamb 2, a rear jamb 3 and a lintel 4, the jamb 3 beingvertically slotted as indicated at 4f to permit sliding displacement ofthe door.

In the upper edge of the door a pair of rollers 5 are recessed to engagea track 6, and another pair of rollers 5 are recessed in the lower edgeof the door to engage a track 7, the engagement of said rollers with thecorrelated tracks serving to guide the door in ts sliding motion to orfrom its closed position. The lower track 7 will preferably be extendedbetween two sills 8 in crossing the doorway. (See Fig. 5).

In the front edge of the door there is formed a rectangular recess 9 inwhich there is mounted a latch 10 of bellcrank shape, the upper end ofwhich latch terminates in a semi-spherical head, while the lower arm ishooked at its extremity to engage a latch bar 11 mounted within a recess12 in the front jamb 2. Just above the recess 12, the jamb 2 is formedwith another recess 13, receiving the semi-spherical head 14 of a squarebolt 15, projecting horizontally through the jamb into'the interior ofthe correlated wall, and carrying within the wall a coiled spring 16hearing at one end against the jamb and at the other against the collar17 fast upon the bolt. The effect of said spring is to normally maintainthe bolt in a position in which the head 1-1 of said bolt is retainedwithin the recess 13 as is shown in Fig. 6. With the collar 17 there ispivotally connected the upper end of a normally vertical arm 18 whichprojects rigidly from a horizontal rock-shaft 19 passing transverselythrough the wall just above the floor and formed at each side of thewall with foot pedals 20 projecting slightly toward the doorway. It ispreferred to journal the end portions of the rock-shaft 19 in smallbrackets 22 eXteriorly secured to the wall, which will hold therock-shaft to a constant axis of rotation.

In order that the door after reaching its open position may beautomatically returned to its closed position, a J-shaped leaf spring 23is mounted upon a stud 24 to which the rear edge of the door comesadjacent to its open position. The force with which the door is thrownopen will be spent in distorting the spring 23 when the door comes intocontact with said spring and the consequent reaction of the spring willserve to throw the door back to its closed position. When desired, thedoor may be maintained open by the use of a common lock 25 which ismounted upon the rear door j amb, the bolt of said lock being adapted toengage in an ordinary socket 26 mounted upon the door adjacent to itsfront edge. Preferably the lock 25 will be of the ordinary key actuatedtype.

A sliding door equipped with the above described mechanism is superiorto the ordinary slidlng door since it may be operated with much lesseffort and will not become the same and rocking the shaft 19 so as to vdisplace the upper extremity of the arm 18 toward the doorway puttingthe spring 16 under compression and bringing the head 1& of the bolt 15into sudden contact with the upper arm of the bell crank 10. Theresulting angular displacement of the bell crank will free 1ts hookedlower arm from the latch bar 11, and the force of impact of the head 14with the bell crank will" throw the door into its open position, inwhich, as pre- 1 viously specified it will contact with the spring 23.

The invention is presented as including all such modifications andchanges as properly come within the scope of the following claim.

What I claim is: In a device of the character described, the

combinationwith a wall formed with a doorway, of a sliding door enteringthe doorway in its closed position, and formed with a recess in itsfront edge, a bell crank pivoted in said recess having an upper armformed with a convex head and a hooked lower arm,

a latch bar carried by the front door jamb and engaged by the latchmember in the closed position of the door, a sliding bolt horizontallymounted in the door jamb perpendicular to the door, its head beingopposite to the upper arm of said bell crank, a spring acting upon saidbolt maintaining its head {spaced from the bell-crank, and a pedallyoperated mechanism correlated with said bolt to subject the same to asliding displacement whereby the bell-crank is rocked disengaging itfrom the latch bar, and the door is thrown open through force of impactof said bolt with the convex head of the latch member.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in thepresence of two subscribing witnesses.

THOMAS M. BEARDON.

V Witnesses V. A. GRAY, W, M. BEAVERS.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, byaddressing. the (lommissioner'of Patents,

Washington, .D. G.

